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Mun Yee-Dhabitah settle for bronze in 3m synchro

GOLD COAST: The windy conditions wreaked havoc on Wednesday's opening diving event as Leong Mun Yee-Nur Dhabitah Sabri earned Malaysia's first Commonwealth Games medal in the women's 3m springboard synchro at Optus Aquatic Centre.

The difficult conditions saw none of the pairs score over 300 points in the competition.

Mun Yee and Dhabitah were 61.40 points away from the gold medal but the latter miscued her landing in the pair's final dive to finish with a bronze on a 264.90 total.

They recorded 46.80, 48.00, 69.30 and 58.50 in the opening four dives.

The Malaysians moved from third to second after favourites Jennifer Abel-Melissa Citrini Beaulieu fumbled their fourth dive. The Canadians finished fifth overall.

Australia's Esther Qin-Georgia Sheehan won the gold medal with a 284.10 total, followed by England's Alicia Blagg-Katherine Torrance (276.90).

"We were only paired together a few months ago and the Commonwealth Games is only our third competition together after last month's World Series legs in Beijing and Fuji, so finishing third is a very good effort," said Mun Yee in her fourth Commonwealth Games outing.

"I am very happy as frankly, I was not doing well in training compared to Dhabitah, but today I did OK.

"Yes, we had a chance to finish better after the Canadians fumbled their dive. However, we did not give much thought about it as our focus was on the final dive.”

The 34-year-old Mun Yee added: "It was windy during the competition and that is the why most pairs made mistakes.”

Dhabitah could not control her emotions during the prize-giving ceremony, but was composed when she was interviewed by the media.

"We felt we had no hope of finishing on the podium as we were not on par with the rest at the World Series. I did not think about the mistakes the other pairs did as we just concentrated on our dives," said Dhabitah, who won bronze in the 10m platform synchro at the 2014 Glasgow edition.

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